You Majored in What? (20 page)

PROBABILITY PLAN

GOAL:
________________________________________________
CURRENT DATE:
_______________________________________
DATE TO ACHIEVE GOAL:
_________________________________
TIME REMAINING:
______________________________________

List of steps to attain goal:

1. __________________________________________________

2. __________________________________________________

3. __________________________________________________

4. __________________________________________________

5. __________________________________________________

6. __________________________________________________

7. __________________________________________________

8. __________________________________________________

9. __________________________________________________

10. __________________________________________________

11. __________________________________________________

12. __________________________________________________

13. __________________________________________________

14. __________________________________________________

15. __________________________________________________

16. __________________________________________________

17. __________________________________________________

18. __________________________________________________

19. __________________________________________________

20. __________________________________________________

Breakdown of time line to achieve goal:

BY
____________________
(INSERT DATE) I WILL HAVE COMPLETED
THE FOLLOWING STEPS:

1. _______________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________

4. _______________________________________________________

5. _______________________________________________________

BY
____________________
(INSERT DATE) I WILL HAVE COMPLETED
THE FOLLOWING STEPS:

1. _______________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________

4. _______________________________________________________

5. _______________________________________________________

BY
____________________
(INSERT DATE) I WILL HAVE COMPLETED
THE FOLLOWING STEPS:

1. _______________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________

4. _______________________________________________________

5. _______________________________________________________

BY ____________________ (INSERT DATE) I WILL HAVE COMPLETED THE FOLLOWING STEPS:

1. _______________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________

4. _______________________________________________________

5. _______________________________________________________

PROBABILITY PLAN

GOAL:
Attend law school
CURRENT DATE:
May 2009
DATE TO ACHIEVE GOAL:
September 2011
TIME REMAINING:
2 years, 4 months

List of Steps to Attain Goal (in any order)

1. Take LSAT

2. Prep for LSAT

3. Review law school info—needed GPA, LSAT score,
etc.

4. Get references

5. Keep grades up

6. Review online applications

7. Prepare essays

8. Do internship or find summer job in law firm

9. Research interest in criminal law

10. Research interest in public law

Breakdown of Timeline to Achieve Goal:

BY
December 2010,
I WILL HAVE COMPLETED THE FOLLOWING
STEPS:

1. Submitted all materials to Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS) to be forwarded to my schools

2. Submitted specific applications to law schools as needed

BY
October 2010,
I WILL HAVE COMPLETED THE FOLLOWING STEPS:

1. Finished final draft of all essays

2. Shared essay with prelaw adviser for advice

3. Read essays to friends for their reactions

BY
September 2010,
I WILL HAVE COMPLETED THE FOLLOWING STEPS:

1. Asked professors and others for letters of recommendation

2. Given LSDAS info to my references

3. Given my references a copy of my résumé to remind them about my background

BY
August 2010,
I WILL HAVE COMPLETED THE FOLLOWING STEPS:

1. Collected all admissions information from schools I’m interested in

2. Researched all the schools to determine their specialties

3. Started drafting my essays, taking into account the advice of admissions office

BY
Summer 2010,
I WILL HAVE COMPLETED THE FOLLOWING
STEPS:

1. An internship or summer job with a local law firm

2. Researched the specifics of criminal law

3. Contacted alumni practicing different types of law

4. Registered for LSAT

BY
December 2009,
I WILL HAVE COMPLETED THE FOLLOWING STEPS:

1. Researched law careers in general

2. Learned typical salaries and best firms to consider for internship or summer job

3. Met with prelaw adviser to confirm that I’m on the right track

4. Begun creating a list of alumni who are lawyers

5. Researched best way to prepare for LSAT

Notice how Madison’s plans get more specific the closer she gets to deadline dates. Also, notice that she was flexible in her designation of dates. She didn’t lock herself into a specific date at first, but rather chose to use general terms like “summer.” You may find you prefer a general date, or you may respond better to specific dates. It’s your plan, so develop it according to what works for you.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you set up and work through your goals:

• How will I know that I’m on the right track? Which of the steps are particularly important?

• Am I already pursuing this plan? Is any part of this plan already occurring?

• What do I need to change or do differently to make this plan succeed?

• Are there any requirements I must meet to make this plan succeed?

• Who could help me with various steps of this plan?

• What is my backup plan and how can I incorporate it into these steps?

POSSIBILITY PLANNING (WANDERING STRATEGY 2)

Possible Lives are all about dreaming, and Possibility Planning will help you organize your dreams and give you a more flexible and creative approach than Probability Planning. In their book,
Creative Decision Making,
H. P. and Carol Gelatt call this type of decision making the “shift from ‘either/or’ to ‘both and more’ ” kind of thinking. Instead of having to choose between appealing futures (pendulum attractors), you get to plan as many as you want while you learn more about each one.

For this type of planning, you will need two tools that you can buy at your college bookstore or almost any grocery, drugstore, Target, or Walmart: a large piece of poster board (so you’ll have enough room to work) and a pack of small Post-it notes (sticky tabs). The poster board can be white or any color you choose, as long as the sticky tabs are in a contrasting color so you can read them easily.

Review your Possible Lives Map from Chapter 5 and make any additions or deletions you want based on where you are now. Decide which ones you want to continue considering. Don’t worry about how disparate they are. They don’t have to be in agreement. As you work through this process, you’ll start to figure out how you might resolve any tensions or differences. Write each of the Possible Lives you’re considering on a sticky tab and place them in a line at the top of your poster board.

Review what you wrote in the Where Are You? section of this chapter. How do your particular strengths or themes relate to any of your Possible Lives? Write some of those key strengths or themes on sticky tabs and place them near the Possible Lives they apply to. This will remind you of why you are pursuing this area.

Take a look at each Possible Life and think about what you need to do before you can do that job or activity. One way to think about this is “Could I start this career (or experience) on Monday?” If the answer is yes, then you probably just have a few things to do. If it’s no, then brainstorm what events or actions would need to occur to get you there. At this point, you probably won’t know every step until you’ve done more research, but fill in the likely steps you’ll need to take, given your current knowledge about the field. Write each step you identify on a sticky tab and start placing them below the Possible Life. They don’t necessarily have to go in order. As usual, don’t worry about making your board perfect. The advantage of the sticky tab system is its complete flexibility. You can move lives around, reorder the steps, remove steps, and add new ones as often as you like. Your planning strategy keeps up with your life and with what you learn as you go along. Just to get you started, here are some typical general steps needed for most experiences (whether in the workplace or graduate school):

• Write résumé

• Write cover letter

• Search Web sites for more information

• Identify books that might provide helpful information

• Get application and apply for admission

• Acquire more education

• Take GRE or other exams

• Find a related internship or other experience

• Talk with people in field

• Identify who can help you

• Raise money to afford your plan

• Note trends in your areas of interest—is it a hot field with lots of opportunities?

You will want to modify this list based on your specific needs and what you learn as you start experimenting, which we’ll get to in Chapter 7. Take the generic terms above and adapt them to your situation. For instance, you might adapt “get education” to “get an M.S.W. degree” or “get certification in massage therapy.” Keep creating the steps for each of the Possible Lives you’ve listed. Once you’re done, step back and take a look:

• Which of your strengths and skills enhance your ability to do each one of these Possible Lives?

• As you started identifying the steps to your Possible Lives, did any particular thoughts come to you?

• Did you find it easier to fill out the steps to one life than another? Why?

• Does one life seem more doable at the moment? Why?

• Does one life seem more appealing or motivating than the others? Why?

• Is one life more challenging than another? Does this make you less inclined or more inclined to pursue it?

• Are you excited about a choice but resisting it for some reason?

• What are the pros or cons of your possible lives? Are any choices particularly risky? In what way?

• What evidence are you using to make your decisions? Do you need to do more research before you can answer these questions?

• Is there a point where you’ll need to make a decision or choose between two or more possible lives? When will that likely occur?